1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a method for controlling the information processing apparatus, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the recent prevalence of printers and digital multifunction devices, anyone can easily execute a printing, copying, and FAX transmitting process via a host computer. While the convenience of printing or the like brings has been improved, a new problem of information leakage through printing, copying, or transmitting of confidential original documents arises. As an information leakage countermeasure, there has been proposed a job history information management system including a digital multifunction device and a server, wherein the system stores job history information in a storage device when a job such as a printing, copying, FAX, electronic mail transmission process, and the like is executed. The job history information includes, for example, information about the user who has executed the job, information about the job execution date and time, information for identifying the digital multifunction device by which the job has been executed (e.g., IP address or serial number), and the type of the executed job. IP is an abbreviation for “Internet Protocol”. The job history information also includes, for example, the image data for an input image and the reduced image data in which the image data has been reduced.
A database is installed on the server that is included in the job history information management system. The job history information, which has been recorded on the digital multifunction device, is transmitted to the server and stored in the database. The server stores the job history information for a predetermined time period in the database to make it retrievable, whereby, when information leakage has been found, the server can retroactively trace the job history information.
Also, there has been proposed a method for reducing the storage capacity required for storing job history information to thereby store more job history information efficiently. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-330939 discloses an image processing apparatus in which the type of a job to be executed (hereinafter referred to as “job type”) is specified, and for a job of a predetermined job type, the reference information for an image as a substitute for the actual image is stored in a storage unit. According to the image processing apparatus, the data amount to be stored in the storage unit can be reduced. The job type is the type of each job such as, for example, printing, copying, FAX transmission, FAX reception, electronic mail transmission, and the like.
As another information leakage countermeasure, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-268837 discloses an image forming apparatus in which limit information, which limits the execution of a print job, is acquired, and the execution of the job, i.e., print settings for the print job, is limited in accordance with the limit information.
An image processing apparatus described above is contemplated, including a function possessed by a system that holds job history information depending on a job type, and a function possessed by an apparatus that limits the execution of a job in accordance with information that limits the execution of the job. However, in the image processing apparatus, the timing at which the job execution limit is set in the image processing apparatus may be different from the timing at which the settings for recording job history information depending on the job type are made. In this case, any failure in acquiring job history information may occur as follows. For example, assume the case where the job execution limit, which has been set in the image processing apparatus, is removed. When the image processing apparatus executes a job immediately after the removal of the job execution limit, job history information is not recorded, if the settings for recording job history information are not made for the image processing apparatus. Thus, for example, a server cannot acquire job history information from the image processing apparatus.